The loathsome ratmen...

While reading the Skaven Designers Notes in issue 505 of White Dwarf a couple of months back, I realised that despite being in the hobby for nearly 30 years now, I'd never actually painted any Skaven miniatures.

Suitably inspired by the photos of all the fantastic new Skaven sculpts throughout the article, I decided it was high time to rectify this oversight and I set to work painting up one of my favourite Clanrats from the new kit that was created for the range refresh. 

What I particularly like about this sculpt, is just how characterful it is at both macro and micro levels. Zoomed out, the hunched pose suggests the Skaven is screeching in fury (or fear) at some unseen adversary, while a closer look reveals the subtle details such as the punch dagger and facial wrappings that hint this clanrat may have ties to Clan Eshin. 

While this model is probably my favourite of all the new clanrats, I think the design and 'eavy metal studios absolutely knocked the Skaven range out of the park in terms of creating a 'coherent rabble'. I'm conscious that's a bit of an oxymoron, but what I mean is that each miniature looks fantastic on its own as an individual, but they also believably fit together with their fellows in a way that incorporates their uniqueness rather than creating disharmony. 

I think this is partially because we don't expect the teeming hordes of Skaven to have a uniformity to them based on the lore and artwork portraying them which stretches back to the very first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle in the 80s, but I think it's also something that has only really been possible since Age of Sigmar enabled the Warhammer Fantasy setting to break away from the rigidity of ranked up blocks of infantry, where such individuality would have looked jarring, not to mention resulting in a lot of units being impossible to assemble due to stabbing each other in the back... though there is something distinctly Skaven about the thought of that!

As I was finishing up work on the Clanrat, I was in chatting to the manager of the Inverness Warhammer store who let me know that December's Miniature of the Month was going to be one of the new Stormvermin, so I thought I'd paint that up too.

Rather handily White Dwarf 506 included an article on how the Warhammer Studio team went about painting up the new Skaven miniatures, so as well as using some of the same colours as on the Clanrat, such as the rough brown fabric, pallid flesh tone and yellowed teeth and claws, I drew some inspiration from the recipes in the magazine too. 

With this pair finished up and being thoroughly enjoyable to work on, naturally I've been thinking about painting up some more Skaven to keep them company in my cabinet, though I'm aiming for quality rather quantity - most unlike the followers of the Horned Rat I know! 

On my painting table just now is a Warlock Engineer with jezzail and there's a Clawlord on Gnaw-beast scrambling towards me through the mail as I type as well. Knowing my proclivity for hopping between projects and being a bit limited on hobby time, the latter may not be painted up immediately, but I am aiming to finish the Warlock up before the end of the year at least.

All of which is to say that I expect there will be more ratmen infesting the blog soon. Until next time though, thanks for reading and happy hobbying.